If you had come to
South Williamsport looking for pitching, the first three games
might have sent you running for cover from the steady rain of
home-run balls.

But Curacao’s Carlos
Pineda will make a compromise with you – he’ll give you the
pitching, as long as you let him have his fun with the long ball.

Pineda did his damage
in the first with a towering three-run home run to right-center,
then made sure it would stand up by tossing 5 2/3 innings of
two-hit ball to give his Caribbean team a narrow 3-2 win over
Guadalupe, Mexico in a Pool D opener before 4,400 at Volunteer
Stadium.

“I was waiting for the
curveball [on the home run],” Pineda said through his coach,
Michelangelo Celestina. “I was confident [it would stand up].”

In a game that only
featured two hits per team, Pineda was just a little bit better
than Mexico starter Walter Montemayor. The big 13-year-old from
Curacao struck out nine before giving way to Jurickson Profar with
two outs and two men on in the sixth. Profar walked the bases
loaded before turning it up a notch to get the game-ending
strikeout and the save.

“I was not nervous,”
Profar said through Celestina.

“He came in the same
situation when we were in Aruba,” Celestina added. “We were
confident he could do it.”

What was also the
first close game of the World Series featured a trio of
hard-throwing pitchers, whom both coaches said helped carry their
teams to this point. Montemayor did not give up a hit after the
first inning, baffling Curacao’s hitters while striking out eight.

“He tried to not throw
as many curves [after the first],” said Mexico manager Gerardo
Leal through translator Micah Hughes. “In the first inning, the
pitches they were successful on were curveballs.”

Pineda didn’t have
such problems early. Through the first three, he was almost
untouchable, throwing 30 of his 43 pitches for strikes and only
allowing one baserunner (a third-inning walk) while striking out
five.

“He had a good
fastball,” Leal said. “And he was tall.”

The 5-foot-10-inch
righty also had the benefit of some outstanding defense, most
notably a diving catch by center fielder Curtney Doran in the
first inning.

“When
the ball comes to me, that ball cannot touch the ground,” Doran
said through Celestina. “When I can’t get it, I will dive for it.”

Pineda ran into
trouble in the fourth, when Alan Camarillo led off with an infield
hit and reached second when he beat out a fielder’s choice attempt
on Oscar Garza’s grounder. Pineda then walked Victor Gonzalez to
load the bases with one out, setting the stage for two runs to
score on Jose Gonzalez’s walk and a wild pitch.

“That inning, I was
not concentrating at all,” Pineda said. “That’s why I was a little
bit wild.”

It happened again in
the sixth when he allowed a double to Montemayor and walked
Ricardo Barragan, but Profar came in to put out the fire.

“We came here with
strong pitching and strong defense,” Celestina said. “The next two
games, we’re going to play the same strong pitching and defense
and try to hit some more balls and get some more runs in.”

The only inning they
hit Saturday was in the first, when Ryandel Walter smoked a
leadoff single and Jonathan Schoop was hit by a pitch before
Pineda’s blast. Schoop, Curacao’s shortstop and No. 3 hitter,
injured his forearm when he was hit and had to leave the game, but
the team hopes he can return in time for its next game Monday
against the Transatlantic team at 5 p.m. at Lamade Stadium.